Spanish Riding School - Travel Advice

Courbette

Courbette

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Hi all, as art of my resolutions for 2020 I'd love to go and visit the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Any advice from people who have previously been as regards things to be aware of, best tours, where to book tickets etc? I'm hoping my trip may coincide with a performance but if not I'd like to see the morning exercise and maybe book a tour later in the day.

I have seen you can book tickets directly through the SRS website which I'm assuming I would then pick up from the box office but any help appreciated.
 
I went in September. i would definitely recommend doing the tour of the stables before you watch the evening performance so you understand what they are trying to show you - even to the trained eye it might look like unbalanced ponies trotting round in circles at the beginning otherwise. We didn't get to see morning exercise - but I think from an educational point of view would be very interesting.

as for your stay in vienna - use the metro, its really cheap, but we only found it on the last day so missed out an seeing stuff further out of the city centre.
 
I really enjoyed it when I went. We had the tour and the Pieber (spelling?) meets Vienna performance which were both fantastic. Even my non-horsey other half liked the tour. I booked straight off the website and picked them up when I got there.
The U-bahn is like the London underground and its great and very cheap.
 
Went there two years ago.

Firstly, if you're attending morning exercise - get there early as free for all on seats - although you can move around once people start leaving. Also make sure you actually have a ticket for the performance - we had purchased online and had to exchange confirmations for tickets - but only discovered when trying to get in - hence ended up at back of queue.

If you're in the Parreterreloge for a performance - be warned that due to the historic building that the seats in row 2 are LOWER than than than the front row - and similarly Row 3 Lower than Row 2 - we were in row 2 and had a good view but the people in the row behind us -walked out as couldn't see.


Enjoy it
 
Having lived in Vienna for 5 months, definitely use the metro/underground to get around. You used to be able to get 24/48/72 hour tickets or weekly tickets that made it very very cheap to travel, and you could just hop on and off. The metro covers so much of the city that it is definitely the best way to get around. The trams are good too, but make sure you know where to get off!

Honestly Vienna is one of my favourite places. When I was there I did a tour of the stables and went to a morning exercise, it was fascinating!
 
Super advice thanks! Will get my holiday requests in ASAP. I'd love to go to Piber too one day, I have always had a fascination with lippizanners :)
 
I recently visited, I found the trams were most convenient to get around and closest to access where I stayed, the underground was also really straightforward as well. Bought tickets for the SRS online & printed at home, but lots did pick them up from the box office.

Easiest way to get around was the city app called WienMobil. You can buy travel cards on there for the duration you're there and they allow unlimited use of all public transport and also has a feature showing best route to get places.
 
I visited a couple of weeks ago. I definitely recommend doing the tour, though I don't think it's particularly important whether you do it before or after the performance. For the performance if you're getting standing tickets I recommend getting there early to get a good place.

I have to admit that whilst I loved the riding and all of the riders seemed fairly sympathetic sorts, I didn't enjoy watching the horses 'leap' and do the moves they're known for. I know as a rider it's probably hypocritical but it just felt a bit too unnatural. Definitely worth a watch though as a once in a lifetime thing!
 
Thanks for the all the advice. I have booked my tickets and can't wait!

FinkleyAlex said:
I have to admit that whilst I loved the riding and all of the riders seemed fairly sympathetic sorts, I didn't enjoy watching the horses 'leap' and do the moves they're known for. I know as a rider it's probably hypocritical but it just felt a bit too unnatural. Definitely worth a watch though as a once in a lifetime thing!
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I used to occasionally ride 2 lippizaners year ago and I have to say they were both naturally incredibly bouncy and had a natural inclination towards work that challenged them and to taking all four feet off the ground. As a fearless teen I loved them, I'm not sure I would now :D
 
I was going to say that when we went we splashed out on the top tickets as it was a once in a life time trip. (But you’ve already bought your tickets!) Really enjoyed it. Also did the stable tour and was surprised how small the horses were. Didn’t think children could see much of them though as they all had their heads down eating!

Don’t waste your money on getting the CAT (airport train). Horrendously expensive. See my Tripadvisor post:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...r469320461-City_Airport_Train_CAT-Vienna.html

Also take a visit to the Austrian National Library - beautiful inside.
 
asmp said:
I was going to say that when we went we splashed out on the top tickets as it was a once in a life time trip. (But you’ve already bought your tickets!) Really enjoyed it. Also did the stable tour and was surprised how small the horses were. Didn’t think children could see much of them though as they all had their heads down eating!

Don’t waste your money on getting the CAT (airport train). Horrendously expensive. See my Tripadvisor post:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...r469320461-City_Airport_Train_CAT-Vienna.html

Also take a visit to the Austrian National Library - beautiful inside.
Click to expand...

Super thankyou, that's great advice! I had some brilliant seats, I was thrilled and then luckily realised on the confirmation post in my haste I was booking them for March (I'm going in Feb) so had to take what was left out of the Feb date, which wasn't much! I'm doing the stable tour too and would also like to try and squeeze in watching the morning exercise but I'm the only horsey one in our group so I may have to skip that.
 
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